This invention relates generally to a container, and more specifically pertains to the packaging and shipment of stackable trays laden with food or other items.
Various style of interlocking boxes are readily available in the art, having tray configurations, and usually such formed containers are provided for furnishing supplemental benefits in the category of a dispenser after it arrives at its location of marketing. For example, in Michiele U.S. Pat. No. 2,937,742, a dispensing tray is readily shown and which has the configuration of an open tray, with a divider therein, for purposes of dispensing merchandise at the store. Another such prior art type of compartmentalized tray is shown in Holoubek U.S. Pat. No. 2,073,635, and which generally discloses a flexible tray which is foldable from a one piece blank of material, and which can be used for securing various comestibles during their storage, exposure for sale, transportation to the home, and during usage. In addition, the patent to Bellerive, U.S. Pat. No. 3,092,297, shows a complex form of divider or partition means for a tray, and which is essentially used during portion control packaging and marketing of food items, such as candy, or the like. Finally, the patent to Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,235, discloses a foldable interlocked box, and which box is formed into an open configuration, having a separate lateral divider provided therein. This box finds its utility in its interlocking features that secure various panels together to form the box into compartments, and for use in holding a variety of items.
The current invention, on the other hand, provides an improvement over the type of interlocking boxes shown in the prior art, and provides for a much more convenient and easily partitionable carton or tray from a unitized blank of paperboard or other carton material, which trays are then stackable after being laden with food or other materials, and locateable within a container for shipment and use at a remote location.
It is, therefore, the principal object of this invention to provide a stackable tray configuration that may be laden with a variety of packaged items and inserted within an enclosing container for shipment, storage, or marketing.
Another object of this invention is to provide an individual tray formed of paperboard or other material and which tray includes a series of longitudinally and laterally disposed dividers that are formed from the unitized blank as initially die cut to the initial tray configuration.
Another object of this invention is to provide means for securing the various side and end walls of a foldable tray together through the use of integral connecting means, obivating the use of any supplemental fasteners to secure and retain the tray in its useable configuration.
Another object of this invention is to provide a divided tray wherein certain of its partitions are formed integrally from the bottom wall of the tray blank.
Another object of this invention is to provide a one piece blank for a partitionable tray.
These and other objects will become more apparent to those skilled in the art upon reviewing the summary of this invention, and upon undertaking a study of the description of the preferred embodiment in view of its drawings.